It has been a relentless downfall for the tablet market as the number of products shipped has gradually fallen in over a year. Taking into account the results of Q3 2015 it is evident that there has been a 11.2 percent fall compared to the same quarter of 2014 in the number of units shipped worldwide.
In Q3 2014 55.7 million units tablets were shipped worldwide, which is over 11 percent more than this years 48.7 million units shipped for the Q3.
Market research firm IDC has compiled the data that sees Apple, Samsung and Lenovo as the top three tablet manufacturers.
Though Apple has retained the top slot, as it turns out it is also the biggest loser among the three. Apple’s market share fell by 1.8 points to 20.3 percent, while Samsung held a 16.5 percent market share after having lost 0.9 points. Thanks to this, Samsung is inching closer towards ousting Apple from the top slot.
Third major player on the list, Lenovo has in fact gained 0.9 points and holds 6.3 percent market share. Other manufacturers such as Asus lost 2.1 points to hold a market share of 4.0 percent, while Huawei interestingly gained 2.4 points to hold 3.7 percent market share.
It has proven to be a good year for China’s number one smartphone manufacturer Huawei, as it managed to hold on to its position after breaking into the top five slot in Q2, 2015. The top five in the list make up for 50.8 percent of the market after having slipped from 52.4 percent marker share exhibited last year.
IDC program director Ryan Reith revealed that,
We continue to get feedback that tablet users are holding onto devices upwards of four years. We believe the traditional slate tablet has a place in the personal computing world. However, as the smartphone installed base continues to grow and the devices get bigger and more capable, the need for smaller form factor slate tablets becomes less clear. With shipment volumes slowing over four consecutive quarters, the market appears to be in transition.
The market research firm believes that the decline can be attributed to the behaviour of “mature markets like North America, Western Europe, and Asia/Pacific having well past 100 million active tablets per region.”
In related news, Samsung seems to have definitely ousted Apple as it was rated higher than Apple in J.D. Power’s 2015 tablet satisfaction study.
The study puts Samsung at number one, followed by Amazon and Apple sharing the number two spot. Samsung has managed to score 827 points with Amazon and Apple sharing 825.points on a 1000 point scape.
The rankings measured the contenders on performance, ease of operation, features, design and cost.
